A woman, who had to give up her professional due to injuries sustained in a crash, has been awarded €30,500 compensation for a wrist injury in a car accident.
In December 2011, Denise Murray – a successful horse trainer – was involved in a car accident in Lucan, County Dublin, in which she damaged her heel and her right wrist. The damage to Denise´s heel subsequently cleared up, but the injury to her wrist has prevented her from continuing in her profession as a horse trainer.
Denise (49) made a compensation claim for a wrist injury in a car accident, stating that she had lost income as a result of the crash and had to forgo her outdoor life in exchange for a clerical job in a village post office. She claimed that her wrist was too weak to ride, school or groom the horses and that the slightest twitch in her wrist could cause excruciating pain.
The compensation claim for a wrist injury in a car accident went to the Circuit Civil Court, where Mr Justice Raymond Groake heard that steroid injections to the base of Denise´s thumb had failed to heal her injury and the only option left available to her was surgery that would involve the insertion of pins into Denise´s wrist without any guarantee of success.
During the hearing, Denise told Judge Groarke that turning a key in a door or removing the lid of a jar with her dominant hand was painful and that pain killers did not agree with her. Denise said that she had also been a keen DIY enthusiast, but had to give that up as well as she was unable to use tools with her left hand.
Judge Groarke awarded Denise €30,500 compensation for a wrist injury in a car accident – stating that Denise would have had many more years of enjoying her outdoor life had it not been for the wrist injury in the car accident. The judge also acknowledged that Denise had an underlying arthritic condition in her wrist which had been aggravated rather than caused by the accident.